The present invention is generally related to communication, command, and control techniques, and, more particularly, to an intelligent communications, command, and control system for a land-based vehicle, such as a train with one or more locomotives, generally subject to variable environmental and/or operational conditions.
Environmental conditions and railroad operating conditions may independently or in combination impact the interaction of communications equipment and railroad control equipment. Complete and up-to-date information regarding environmental and operating conditions is desired for optimizing the management of a railroad system.
Communications on a moving vehicle, such as a moving train, truck, autobus, etc., are generally subject to a number of factors that can substantially impact the quality of communications. Thus, it would be desirable to measure the quality of communications. For example, such measurement may be used for determining whether the quality is satisfactory, and, if not satisfactory, for determining whether to adjust a communications scheme so as not to lose communication, or for determining whether any other communication scheme available in the vehicle may be more appropriate under a given set of communication-degrading conditions.
Communications (e.g., data or voice communications) in a moving train need to be reliable and accurate under a variety of changing operational and/or environmental conditions to achieve any desired locomotive control functionality, or to communicate with entities remote from the train, such as dispatchers, or a center for remotely providing monitoring and diagnostic services, or personnel in a rail yard or in loading/unloading station, or wayside equipment, etc. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a system configurable to provide a plurality of communication schemes, and further configurable to automatically choose a communication scheme appropriate to a given set of operational/environmental conditions.
It would be further desirable to provide a system configurable to provide a plurality of control modes, and further configurable for automatically choosing a control mode appropriate to a given set of operational/environmental conditions and/or a given communication scheme.